Readers who are connoisseurs of Japanese folklore may have heard of this chapter before. Several legends dating back over 3,000 years speak of a creature which roams the streets late into the night, looking for page numbers to swallow whole. That creature is this chapter. Hide your page numbers before nightfall.
Here's a page number guide for this week (beware spoilers)
I had some trouble with this sentence: “これで何人目だよ。。。” Mostly centering around the 目. I believe it means something like “how many of these type of people are there going to be”, but I can’t really break it down.
Not a question, I’d just have to say that it seems like every other week, there’s an instance of てしまう/ちゃう, and despite the very useful video linked back in week two, it still takes me ten minutes of analyzing every time before I realize what I’m looking at .
I think this 目 is acting as an ordinal number suffix, as explained in this Maggie Sensei article.
Below is an example sentence from that article, which is similar to ours. Based on this we might translate our sentence as - “including this guy, how many people are there?”
I believe this まま is used to indicate that something remains in a given state; it’s often translated as “while”. So, わかれない + まま would mean something along the line of “while remaining in a state of not being able to understand / not comprehending”.
So in this case we have:
どうしてなのか叶実にはわからないまま
お兄ちゃんは急に変わってしまった
どうしてなのか => For some reason
叶実にはわからないまま => As Kanami remained in a state of not being able to understand
お兄ちゃんは => Big brother
急に => Suddenly
変わってしまった => (unfortunately) changed.
So my understanding is that this is saying that お兄ちゃん changed suddenly before Kanami could realize what was going on, or understand why.
Hi everyone!! I´m back! Sorry for being absent more than I should have, but since I came back from vacation I´ve had two frenetic work weeks to the point that I had to leave my Japanese studies parked for a while. But here I am again to continue with the reading. I´ll cope up with the reading weeks I have pending and for this Saturday I´ll be with you to start week 8
Minor change here. Kanami’s kindly big brother’s dialogue originally ended in an か. This was dropped for the commercial release, but can’t you just feel the rising intonation added to the た?
A ・ was added to 「お兄ちゃん」, as is typical in the commercial release when emphasizing between Kanami’s formally doting big brother and her rental big brother.
Kanami’s dusty big brother’s dialogue gained a few words in the commercial release.
Two major artwork changes on the top of this page.
A view of the house from outside was replaced by Chekhov’s gun a wall clock.
The scene of Kanami sitting at the kitchen table changed angles. Maybe the overhead angle wasn’t used elsewhere in the manga by the time this scene was redrawn?
Quite a few things going on in this sentence. Just getting used to the casual version of the progressive tense dropping the 「い」from 「いる」. It’s thrown me a couple of times wondering why a random て or た has appeared in the sentence. Also had to look up how the conditional (~たら) form works - I get that it’s a cause and effect statement.
My question is about the tense of the sentence. Is the past tense implied here? I thought the final verb in the sentence determines tense but this one is in te-form not past.
Also I’m a bit unsure about when 来る keeps showing up. I know in some circumstances it means “come and do something” but I wasn’t clear on its purpose here. Couldn’t 帰って be put in conditional form?
My translation: You were alone today, so I was rushing and I ran home when I accidentally fell over.
Your question is spot on for me, since I´m exactly where you are now. I also had given the past nuance for the whole sentence (that たら I think is definitely a hint), but I was still wondering, as you were, why does the sentence end in て form. I had interpreted either that it´s an incomplete sentence-thought (as in, I accidentally fell…) or that it had to do with the state of falling (as in ている form), but I´m probably wrong. For sure someone can shed some more light on it. Sorry if my info isn´t helpful!
Not very confident in my interpretation, so hopefully someone can also chime in, but yes, my understanding is that the past tense is implied from context in this case.
The て-form, since it’s used to connect sentences and verbs, can sometimes be used at the end of a sentence to imply that other, unmentioned things, also happened.
So in this particular sentence, 転んじゃって could be translated to something like “I (unfortunately) fell down (and stuff)”. This is further enhanced by using さ at the end of the sentence, which happens to be “filler” of sorts. It’s kind of implying that “there’s other stuff I could fill in here, but I don’t feel it’s necessary”
Not very sure about this either, sorry =._.=
Here goes my interpretation.
てくる is a construction that, aside from using it in a directional sense, can also be used to indicate that some action started and continues up to a point in time. Take this example taken from the DoBJG:
私はコンピューター少し分かって来た
(I have begun to understand computers).
So 分かって + 来た is implying that a process has started and reached the state of being “ongoing”.
Now 帰ってきた would imply that we have some sort of verb that is going on. In this case, 帰る is that verb → so in the process of coming back. This all implies that the falling over happened while お兄ちゃん was in the process of coming back.
And that’s the difference with saying 帰ったら. ～たら implies that two sentences are linked in time. A ~たら B, means that A happened, and then B happened.
帰ったら would imply that big brother had already returned home, and then fell, which clearly isn’t the case. 帰ってきたら means that he had reached the state of being on the way home, and then he fell.
This took me longer than I’d like to admit to get used to. Good news is that if you keep reading native material that has casual conversations (such as manga), you’ll be completely and fully used to it before you realize.
As @2OC3aOdKgwSGlxfz says, context is what tells us that this is a past/completed action. The only thing that we have go to on is that it would make no sense in context for this to be a present-future/incomplete action.
I’d say this is about right. He could say “I ended up falling and getting dirt all over my clothes.” Or “I ended up falling and landing in the mud.” But instead trails off with “I ended up falling and…” There’s really no point in finishing the thought because he’d just be relating what his sister’s already pointed out, that his clothes are dirty.
When you say 帰る, you can be going “to go home” or “to come home”. As @2OC3aOdKgwSGlxfz notes, you get a sense of direction when you add いく (to go) or くる (to come).
家に帰る。 I will return to home.
家に帰っている。 I will go back home.
家に帰ってくる。 I will come back home.
There’s more meaning to usage of て＋くる, but I’m still a learner and have a lot more to learn in this area.
Hi friends! What a breath of fresh, kind air this chapter has brought us – up until the last pages at least .
Page 83
I think this was the page that gave me the most trouble this week. Not so much with the overall meaning/understanding (I guess), but with the grammar constructs, so I wonder if you could shed some light into it.
そういえばママがね
How does this “floating” が works here? Is it just missing the “main verb/adjective” because it’s casual speech? If so, what could be the complete sentence?
I translated as: That reminds me, our mom, you know…
お土産にプリン買ってくるって！
Why is this sentence ending in the ーて form? Is it just another one of those times where it implies “somethings unsaid”?
My translation: She is bringing home some pudding (and stuff).
良い子にして待ってよう
How does the volitional form of ている → てよう works here? I am very unfamiliar with the volitional form in general, so this was a though one to understand.
My take on it was very literal: Be a good girl and let’s wait.
Page 85
叶実もがんばるから
How does this sentence links to the last one with から? For context, the previous sentence was: これで何人目だよ… = Including this guy, how many people are there? (thanks @Micki for this one )
My translation for this sentence was: (Because) Kanami is also doing her best., but that doesn’t make much sense to me.
I guess this was my best performing week so far, so I’m pretty happy about how this is turning out. Also, I think I might be able to catch up with the book club schedule this weekend, which is nice thanks for the discussion as always, you’re the best!
P.S.: I removed the spoiler tags from my translations, as I noticed more people are doing the same. Please don’t hesitate to let me know if you would benefit of the spoiler tags in some way so I can put them back!
Edit: ← never knew a Mii avatar could bring me such joy.
I’d say you have it right. I read it that two combined word balloons as one sentence, but with a bit of a pause (the “you know”) in there. “By the way, Mom, you know, she said she’d buy some プリン on the way home.” (loose translation)
Quoting. I don’t know if his mother necessarily used that exact wording, but it’s essentially “Mom said…” You’ll also see quotes followed by と言う, but often the と becomes って, and the 言う is left off (because why say more than you need to?)
Thus, perhaps more like, “She said she’s bringing home some pudding.”
Another wording could be, “‘I’m bringing home pudding,’ she said.”
The volitional form took me a while to get used to, mostly because I wasn’t familiar with the word “volition”. It didn’t really mean anything to me. I’d heard the expression “of his/her own volition”, and I knew it meant essentially to act “willingly” or “voluntarily”, but it didn’t really stick for me for the longest time.
Ultimately, volition comes down to meaning “I’ll do” or “let’s do” (as you have in your translation with “let’s”).
If 待つ is “to wait”, then 待とう is “I shall wait” or “let us wait”. However, this is simply a statement of non-completed state. That is to say, the waiting hasn’t completed yet. But that doesn’t mean it’s happening right not. It can happen in the future.
The て＋いる form lets you state that an action is continuously happening. It’s not going to happen in the future, it’s happening right now.
If 待っている is “waiting” (a continuous state of wait), then 待っていようis “I shall be waiting” or “let’s be waiting”.
In English, we think of volition as doing someone on one’s own, so it makes sense to say “I shall wait” or “let us wait.” It may seem odd to tell someone else to do something of their own volition, but we have that, too: “You should wait.”
I feel like the nuance is a bit different between English and Japanese, but maybe that’s because I’m not as familiar with the Japanese volitional form. This can translate as “You should wait like a good child” (or “You should be waiting like a good child”), but the result comes off as odd-sounding.
If I were translating it, I’d likely go with:
Please don’t sue me for plagiarism.
Page 85
In a previous chapter, we had Sae-chan’s mother make a statement, then then give the reason (ending in から) afterwords. But the natural order is to state the reason (ending in から) first, then make a statement.
I think the statement portion is in the first panel of page 86. Said the other way around, I think the reason for that panel is what he said on page 85.
This is probably me reading into it a bit, but I think Big Brother Kazutaka is trying to toughen up Kanami a bit, because they can’t afford to be soft anymore. If anyone has a different take on it, I’d love to hear other thoughts.
As you improve, you’ll continue to see familiar vocabulary and grammar. Sometimes things will feel easy.
But this volume will also keep throwing random new things at you along the way, which can make you feel like you haven’t made any progress.
Embrace the duality =D
I think spoiler tags have the most value during the first week, as that’s when most people will be reading along. If we’re seeing lack of spoiler tags during the first week, then I guess it comes down to whether anyone complains (would be perfectly fine!)
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Sorry for being absent more than I should have, but since I came back from vacation I´ve had two frenetic work weeks to the point that I had to leave my Japanese studies parked for a while. But here I am again to continue with the reading. I´ll cope up with the reading weeks I have pending and for this Saturday I´ll be with you to start week 8 
)
thanks for the discussion as always, you’re the best!
← never knew a Mii avatar could bring me such joy.